At Sea

Through the night, our amusement park ride on the ‘wave maker’ continued as the Prince Albert II continued to close ground on the Falkland Islands. Our current ETA is early tomorrow morning.

Yesterday had brought us very little in terms of species to see, so as I awoke this morning I had high hopes for the coming hours. Seabirds would increase and maybe a Cetacean or two or some Dolphins may pass us by if all went well.

Between times on the Bridge, I would join our guests in The Theatre for the day’s lecture program from my colleagues. First up this morning was Hans-Peter and his talk ‘Biodiversity – Counting Life on Earth’. How many species of plant and animal are out there, how many have we lost and how many do we need to survive? It was an interesting overview of what biodiversity deals with and its importance to mankind.

As our day passed along, the swell came and went along with the sunshine as the Prince Albert II pushed through fog bank after fog bank. At one point while I was on the Bridge, the winds jumped from speeds in the range of 27 knots up to almost 40 knots in a matter of minutes bringing rain and fog before dropping just as quickly.

Soft-plumage Petrels the odd Wilson’s Storm Petrel and Prion drifted past sporadically before birds turned up in numbers in the early afternoon. One Wandering Albatross continually cruised past the Bridge wing offering stunning views to Juan and I, as well as to some guests who had joined us on the Bridge. Sooty Shearwaters, Great Shearwaters and Grey Petrels all appeared from the mist around us.

As sea days tend to be, the Prince Albert II continued to be a quiet ship through the early afternoon until Kara invited everyone to The Theatre for an interesting look at the polar regions with ‘A Comparison of the Polar Regions’. For most, the thought of the polar regions are a mirror image, but during her talk, Kara explained some of the minor similarities and the major differences between the two regions.

With the sun shinning again I joined several guests on the outside decks to watch as seabirds followed in our wake enjoying the last of the day’s light. Shortly after Robin made the call, it was time to gather in The Theatre once again for our daily Recap & Briefing.

During the briefing Robin took the guests through our plans for Stanley tomorrow as well as the following day in the West Falklands before we dispersed for another amazing dinner from Executive Chef Douglas and his galley team.

Before signing off on today’s log, I wanted to pass along, from all of the crew here onboard the Prince Albert II a warm birthday greeting to our Staff Captain!